The last frost has come and gone here in Ontario, which means: ​​It’s gardening time! This is a beautiful time of year, and one of my favourite things about it is planting my garden! I have revamped my vegetable garden this year, so my organic tomatoes and cucumbers are happily planted, along with organic peppers, squashes, pumpkins, zucchinis, leeks, green onions, and countless herbs. It is a leafy green, organic paradise, and I love it!

Now, I’m not sure where you fall on the spectrum of gardeners. Perhaps the fact that I just wrote “spectrum of gardeners” gives you an idea of where I fall. I can practically hear many of you now: “There’s a spectrum?!” Yes, my dear reader: a spectrum. There are your garden variety gardeners, your grandmother gardeners, and your single-garden-box-in-the-window city wannabes. (I remember those days well.) And then there are those who go overkill, like me and my massive red gallon buckets of hanging tomatoes. (Yes, you read that right. My tomatoes hang.)

I garden like I run my business: intensely, no holds barred, all in to get the most out. And so, not only do I have eight large garden boxes for vegetables alone, but I also have a mini orchard, large red buckets growing potatoes and tomatoes, an in-ground herb garden, potted herbs, a series of rotating trays for growing fresh sprouts, and an indoor grow tent housed in my house’s former cistern. (I haven’t even mentioned my flower beds yet.) And all of my plants – from every sprig of fresh Rosemary to every baby cherry tomato – are organic.

Now, I get many questions about my garden. There is the typical, overwhelmed, wide-eyed: “Why?!” My personal favourites are those from the strangers who stop at the side of the road to stare with gaping mouths and ask about my hanging tomato gardens. But by far the most common question I get about my garden is: “How do you keep it organic?!”

My secret weapon? Using essential oils for gardening.Yes, essential oils.

Now, when I suggest using essential oils for gardening, people often give me a weird look. (Or maybe it’s the slight lingering smell of chicken poop from working in my chicken coop…) Many people think they need to use pesticide sprays to kill weeds, harsh chemicals to trap beetles, and soil that has been injected with inorganic matter to achieve a luscious garden.

Well, I’m here to tell you that that is absolutely not the case! With just a few essential oils for gardening and some basic education about organic gardening, you will be saving money and growing an abundance of delicious vegetables before you know it! And all without those nasty chemicals!

There are two ways to use essential oils for gardening:
You can use oils to help your garden; and
You can use oils to help you while you garden.

While tips and tricks for warding off mosquitoes and avoiding sunstroke while you garden are wonderful, this blog post will focus on how to effectively use essential oils for your garden. Specifically, I want to share with you three easy recipes that will help you grow organic by using essential oils for gardening.

I can’t do your organic gardening for you (and, honestly, I have more than enough of my own garden beds to work on!), but these recipes should make your organic gardening life just that much simpler!

Ready? Set? Grow! (Puns are like organic vegetables–hard to resist.)